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FedEx Cup Playoffs Tour Report: Walking a Practice Round With Rory, Collin's Short Game Prep & Latest WITB
Week two of the FedEx Cup playoffs is here and we were on site at the beautiful Wilmington Country Club to bring you the latest scoop from Team TaylorMade. A lot to get to here...we'll take you through what it was like to be the only ones on the golf course with Rory McIlroy during a Monday practice round, Scottie Scheffler's launch monitor guessing genius and the latest WITB for Rory, Scottie, Collin, Kurt and Lucas.
The best part of our job is being able to get an inside look at Team TaylorMade athletes' preparation heading into a tournament week. Every athlete approaches their practice rounds differently, even from day-to-day.
On Monday in Wilmington, we went out on the back nine with Rory in the early afternoon to get a glimpse at his preparation. For this practice round, Rory played the golf course as if it was tournament competition, as opposed to hitting various shots from different locations on each hole and trying different pin locations -- he saved that for later in the week.
What did we learn?
- If Rory needs to find the green in two on the monster 634-yard Par 5 12th he can -- in mind blowing fashion. Rory demolished his drive with Stealth Plus leaving about 293 yards to carry the water and 314 to get to the pin...that's no problem for Rors as he pulled 3-wood and landed the ball to about 25-feet from the pin and two putted for an easy birdie.
- On the Par 3 13th, Rory stuck an 8-iron to 5-feet and rolled in his second birdie in a row.
- Rory also can lay back on his second shot on Par 5s -- as he did on the 649-yard 14th hole -- he had 320-yards to the front of the green and hit 5-wood leaving 79 yards to the pin. Rory flicked his 58° MG3 SB wedge to about 8-feet for three straight birds.
That's called watching a master at work.
- Stealth Plus 9.0° Driver
- SIM2 15.0° 3-wood
- Stealth Plus 15.0° 5-wood
- Rors Proto Irons 3-9
- Milled Grind 3 46° SB, 54° HB, 58° SB Wedges
- Spider X Hydro Blast Putter
- TP5x Golf Ball
A few weeks back, we shared Scottie guessing his Trackman yardages which most of you agreed was one of the craziest things we've ever seen on a driving range. However, as expected, there were some haters that thought it was fake...well, as Scottie says below...it's real!
Why is Scottie the World No. 1 you may ask? Check out these stats from the regular season:
1st in Greens in Regulation Percentage
- 72.22% GIR – 962 greens hit in 1,332 holes (85 rounds)
- TOUR AVERAGE: 65.56%
1st in GIR percentage from fairway
- 84.50% - 529 greens hit in 626 holes
- TOUR AVERAGE: 76.53%
T2 in Birdie Average
- 4.64 birdies per round (343 total birdies)
- TOUR AVERAGE: 3.63
Coming off his T5 last week in Memphis, Collin Morikawa is ready to roll in Wilmington. We walked a few practice round holes on Tuesday with Collin and Kurt Kitayama and observed Collin's meticulous preparation around the greens.
As we mentioned with Rory, everyone treats each practice round day different. For Collin, he invested a ton of time on Tuesday into learning the different lies he could face around the greens and how to approach the potential pin locations for all four days at Wilmington CC.
Per usual for Collin, he had a few different 60° wedges in the bag to ensure he had the right bounce for the rough around the greens. He tested a HB (12°) MG3 in addition to the MG3 TW 60° he used last week in Memphis, finding different lies and different pin locations to see how the clubs performed. When we finished the round with Collin on Tuesday he told us to expect the MG3 TW wedge to remain in the bag. Earlier this season in New Orleans when Collin originally put the wedge in the bag, we spoke to TaylorMade Senior Tour Manager Todd Chew to understand why the TW grind works for Collin.
“Over time Collin has modified his technique with his wedges so the way the leading edge interacts with the striking surface is different than it used to be which is why he plays a different sole shape than he used to. He is using the bottom of the club more so he doesn’t rely as much on the width of the sole to get the club back out. The TW wedge has a different sole shape with bevel on the leading edge that is multi-surface, which makes it more versatile and allows him to get through the turf better and cleaner without digging. Week to week based off conditions and what exactly Collin is looking for he could opt for 60° wedges with different sole shapes or more bounce which he has with his other Milled Grind 3 wedges.”Todd Chew, TaylorMade Senior Tour Manager
- SIM 8.0°
- SIM 14.0° Rocket 3-wood
- Stealth Plus 19.0° 5-wood
- P·770 4-iron
- P·7MC 5-6 iron
- P·730 7-PW
- Milled Grind 3 50° SB, 56° SB, 60° TW Wedges
- CM Proto Putter
- TP5 Golf Ball
When digging through this year’s stats, there was one thing that massively stood out: Lucas Herbert is really good at putting. Like, really good. The combo of his Spider Tour and Spider GT red putters delivered as led the TOUR in the regular season in:
1st in Strokes Gained Putting
- .849 average in 34 measured rounds (28.862 total SG: Putting)
1st in One Putt Percentage
- 8.08 average, 388 1 putts in 864 holes (44.91 percent)
- TOUR AVERAGE: 39.01%
1st in Overall Putting Average
- 1,329 total putts in 864 holes (1.538 average per hole)
- TOUR AVERAGE: 1.616
Perhaps this drill is why?
Kurt Kitayama has been vibing all season and we aren’t just talking about his ELITE range swag with the Air Pods + curved flat brim TaylorMade hat + sunglasses combo…Kurt also tallied three Top 3 finishes this year coming at The Honda Classic (3rd), Mexico Open at Vidanta (T2) and Genesis Scottish Open (2) – good for 43rd in the final regular season FedEx Cup standings.
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